"At the behest of Ukraine": Russian Olympic champion complains about new EU sanctions

Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova made a silly joke about the new sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russian athletes. In particular, the list includes chess player Sergey Karyakin, a traitor to Ukraine and an ardent Z-patriot, and Nikita Nagorny, a gymnast who won gold at Tokyo 2020 and swore allegiance to dictator Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with the VseProSport website Zhurova blamed all the troubles on Ukrainians who allegedly told the EU who to impose personal sanctions against. In addition, the State Duma deputy expressed confidence that these are the last restrictions on representatives of the Russian Federation.

"I don't think the European Union knows Karyakin and Nagorny, these wonderful people. They were put on the EU sanctions list at the behest of Ukraine. After all, Karyakin did not hide his support for the Russian president and the military operations in Ukraine (as the war in Ukraine is shamefully called in Russia - ed.) These sanctions against Russian athletes are the last chord of restrictions by the European Union. They don't know what else to do, so they are doing something. The EU just wants to show that they support Ukraine. But these sanctions are essentially meaningless and will not hinder Karyakin and Nahirny in any way. They will be lifted soon anyway," Zhurova said.

It should be noted that the 16th package of sanctions against Russia includes 74 tankers of the Russian shadow fleet that transport Russian oil in circumvention of previous sanctions, eight Russian media outlets in Europe, and 13 banks have been disconnected from the SWIFT payment system.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, Svetlana Zhurova shared her fantasies that Russian athletes will be returned to international competitions by the summer.

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